The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

Let me begin by saying that this book was a "pain in the" to find a download for....er, by "downloaded" I mean I read it at the library. Anyway, where do I begin? This book was, well, it reminded me very much of "The Count of Monte Cristo". If you've never read the book or seen the movie then I strongly suggest you do so. If you have seen or read it, then you might enjoy this book.

The main character Foyle reminds me very much of the Count. The only major differences is that instead of being the master of sword fighting, Foyle has much more interesting wepons up his sleeves. He can "juant" as a way of transportation, for one (the first chapter gets you interested with this notion) and of course since it's sci-fi he has some alteration made to make him super fast, super human like, blah, blah, blah. This book, as dated as it is, was exciting and full of action. It was hard o believe it was written in the 5o's. I would think it would make for a great movie, if nothing else.

Foyle in my opinion was a very sad and twisted character. He's very, "anti-hero". I didn't know what to make of him, he was terrible and he was glorified (mostly near the end did I feel most for him). He rapes, he kills, he has lovers (some of which he abandons) and generally he makes messes for himself later on but somehow he manages. When he is left for dead by the upper-class (a ship called Vorga), his revenge and hate drives him to better himself. I thought it was interesting in that, Bester was able to pull this off so well (regardless of the Monte Cristo plot line). Maybe I should find someone to hate with a passion so I would stop being lazy and go to Harvard to better myself, then I could get the revenge I deserve! Aside from being satirical throughout this review I might add that this book was a page turner for me. I enjoyed it for the meat of the book, it was action packed and had some great twists! I would still suggest it even if you don't like Sci-Fi all that much. Some of the sci-fi did make the story confusing at times, I had trouble following and at times and didn't get the full effect because I sometimes missed things. But, the important parts were understandable and I was able to follow the main plot pretty well. As a main character, I thought his evolution was very interesting. Foyle learns to imagine and learns to dream. In the beginning he does neither, but it all changes with his first "dream" as twisted as it was. I won't give away the ending, but it was worth reading this through to the end just for the satisfaction of knowing what becomes of Foyle.